A/HRC/6/4 page 5 12. Pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 4/10, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief will present a report to the sixth session of the Human Rights Council, in which she gives an overview of the mandate’s issues of concern according to the categories of her framework for communications. One of these subcategories deals with “Freedom of expression, including questions related to religious conflicts, religious intolerance and extremism”. The report (see A/HRC/6/7, paras. 38-39) refers both to the joint thematic report on incitement to racial and religious hatred and the promotion of tolerance (A/HRC/2/3) and to the joint press release of 8 February 2006 where three mandate-holders called for tolerance and dialogue in the wake of the controversy over representations of the Prophet Muhammad. 13. On 28 April 2007, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression delivered a speech at a conference on “The role of media in the development of tolerance and mutual understanding” which was organized by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Special Rapporteur emphasized that the interpretation of principles related to freedom of expression may extensively vary, in particular when it comes to the definition of opinion-related offences. Furthermore, efforts to consolidate social and cultural balances, within a harmonious, multicultural society might be jeopardized by the use of stereotypes, labelling and insulting ethnic, social and religious groups, in a context of polarization of opinions, often based on distorted arguments and narrow-mindedness. Since all human rights are universal, interdependent and interrelated, freedom of religion and freedom of expression walk together. There will be no freedom of expression without freedom of religion, and vice versa, because creeds and beliefs are an essential, deep-rooted component of the life of billions of people. The Special Rapporteur concluded that legislation merely defining new restrictions and limitations to the enjoyment of the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression may jeopardize the ability in finding a common ground on which even heated debates can turn into a useful dialogue. 14. The Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism has recently analysed the issue of “profiling” in the context of countering terrorism. In his last report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/4/26, paras. 32-62 and 83-89), the Special Rapporteur provided an overview of the different contexts in which law-enforcement agencies have employed terrorist-profiling practices, assessed the compliance of this approach with human rights standards and set out permissible forms of terrorist profiling as well as possible alternatives to the reliance on terrorist profiles. 15. In the press release after his country visit to the United States of America from 16 to 25 May 2007, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism welcomed as an element of best practice the statement of the Secretary of Homeland Security that the application of law and practice by his Department is not to involve racial or religious profiling. The Special Rapporteur, nevertheless, noted claims that country of origin has been, or may be, used as a proxy for such profiling. In his opinion it is a significant problem in certain regions of the world that the religious status of persons is wrongly confused with the identification of such persons as potential terrorists. This worrisome pattern must be reversed, and the Special Rapporteur recommended that all States must ensure that they do not act in a manner which might reinforce such a practice.